4 Important Ways to Establish and Attract Your Daycare Target Market

Did you know that  73% of Millennials say that valuing their time is important and 40% prefer self-service over human contact with business?

This means that it is important to create an optimized experience for your parents. Not knowing how to attract parents to your daycare can lead to low enrollment, loss of revenue, and wasted time. Read on to learn how to establish and attract your daycare target market. 👨‍👩‍👦

Download your Daycare Business Plan to discover how to conduct the right research. 🔍

Table of Contents

• 1) Conduct Market Research
• 2) Define Your Daycare Target Market
• 3) Develop Your Buyer Personas
• 4) Find a Solution to Simplify Attracting Your Daycare Target Market

1) Conduct Market Research (+ outline your daycare start-up business plan)

Market research is a data collection process that evaluates consumer behavior, competitor habits, and industry trends to determine the viability of your center and build a foundation for future business operations.  

When it comes to marketing to parents, this market research should result in actual data that you can use to drive your business and marketing strategies as you launch your center. There are a variety of tools available to help you conduct market research - all from the comfort of your own office. Gone are the days of hiring team members with clipboards to approach consumers face-to-face. 

2) Define Your Daycare Target Market  

A market segment is a group of consumers that could potentially enroll at your childcare center. First, conduct market segmentation for your daycare and determine how big each segment is.  

Be careful not to fall into the trap of defining your market as “everyone in your community.” This often leads to a ‘spray and pray’ approach to your marketing and as we know, a message for everyone really speaks to no one. When you generalize your advertising in favor of not isolating a potential consumer, you aren’t able to effectively communicate with your ideal customers – forgetting to recognize how your childcare center can appeal to them and their needs.  

A classic example is a shoe manufacturer. While it would be tempting for a shoe company to say that their target market is anyone who has feet, realistically they need to target a specific segment of the market in order to be successful. If they sell adult athletic shoes, they should be building their message to target athletes or individuals who enjoy staying active and exercising. 

A common strategy when identifying target markets is to use the TAM, SAM, and SOM approaches to look at market sizes from a top-down approach as well as a bottom-up approach.  

Statistics about Millennial and Gen Z Parents

Target Market Terms

This should include everyone you wish to reach.  

Example: Your entire local community.  

This is a portion of the TAM you will specifically target because they align with your offerings.  

Example: Families with young children.  

This is the group of your SAM that you will realistically reach—particularly in the first few years of your center’s opening, as you may expand and grow your service over time.  

Example: Families with young children who make at least $65,000 each year in household income.  

For childcare organizations with multiple brands, schools, or programs - increasing revenue and keeping families happy is vital for growth. Your Millennial parents need a uniform, high-quality experience, regardless of location. 

To achieve consistency, your franchisees’ marketing approach and advertising material must follow all your corporate brand guidelines. Your organization should have a lead management system that supports your childcare franchise staff as they guide families through the decision-making journey while also ensuring each location is delivering a consistent parent experience.

3) Develop Your Buyer Personas

Before you begin writing your marketing plan, make sure you’ve defined the target market for your daycare and buyer personas. Without a deep understanding of whom you’re speaking to, a marketing plan will have little value.   

Audience personas allow you to dive even deeper into your target market and help you understand more than just who your customer is. These identities inform you how to communicate with your customers in a way that relates to their pain points and needs.  

When you understand your customer’s motivations, you can uniquely address their concerns and questions in your marketing materials - leading to increased tours, enrollments, and revenue.    

1. Start by listing out the various kinds of programs and classes you’d like to offer at your center.  
2. Then, determine who the primary decision-maker is and who the primary influencers might be in each scenario.   
3. Primary decision-maker: typically the individual(s) taking financial responsibility and remitting payment at your center.   
4. Primary influencers: are also crucial in the purchasing process as they often have the ability to sway decision-makers. 

4) Find a Solution to Simplify Attracting Your Daycare Target Market 

Conducting research, defining your daycare target market, and developing buyer personas are important steps to take to start your center off on the right foot. Once these business elements are detailed, make the process simple for parents and your daycare staff by using a Childcare Experience Platform to grow enrollment, with less work.

About LineLeader: The World's First Childcare Experience Platform

LineLeader by ChildcareCRM is the first and only platform to deliver full-featured customer relationship management (CRM) software, a family engagement app, and childcare management software (CMS) in one unified platform. LineLeader helps childcare organizations manage their business and optimize their staff and family experience so they can succeed in a competitive market. Now, childcare centers can eliminate the multiple disjointed products they use to grow enrollment, engage families, and manage their centers. LineLeader serves more than 5,000 childcare centers worldwide.  

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